Where she ought to be
by BigGirlSarah
Summary: She faced the raven, she watched the Doctor forget her again and again. So why does this clever man keep showing up? Sweet little fluff for Clara and the 12th Doctor. Major spoilers if you haven't finished the season 9!


**Hello! This is how I wanted this to go so very badly! I do not own Doctor Who though I am a big Gigantic fan! Enjoy!**

"No don't look at me that way," Her voice cracked as her big brown eyes looked up at him. His own blue ones stared down at her as they misted with unshed tears, he was going to lose another one. Another companion that he help close to his chest, to his hearts. His impossible girl was leaving him, this time for good, a ticking clock etched on the back of her neck counting down.

"Clara. My Clara," He whispered, his pronouncement of her name deeper than normal with his grief. She smiled slightly at him and raised her hand to place it against his cheek. He flinched a little, still not liking direct touch, but relaxing as her hand warmed up against his skin. A tear skidded down her cheek which she quickly wiped away as if she didn't want him to see. Strong to the end his Clara, if only he could be the same.

"Doctor can you do me a favor?" She asked, her voice squeaking with her tear laden voice, her grief just as strong.

"Yes anything," He replied quickly as he placed his hand just above her own against his cheek. Her smile widened a little as she let the tears flow down her cheeks. He too wanted to cry, to beg, to desperately latch onto this woman and not let go.

"Tell me again why you chose the name Doctor?" His eyes widened slightly at her question before softening again.

"Never cruel nor cowardly, Never give up, Never give in," He replied automatically as he leaned his cheek further into her grasp, closing his eyes. He heard her sniffle and he reopened them.

"Don't seek revenge for me," She cried as her grip tightened against the hand she held within her own. He hadn't even realized that she had grasped his free hand, "just do one thing for me. Just promise me to never be a warrior, always a Doctor."

His instinct was to deny her that sentiment. She meant too much to him for him to not seek vengeance for losing her. He opened his mouth to do just that, when she released his hand and placed her now free oen against his other cheek, holding his face firmly.

"Promise me Doctor," She said sternly her eyes boring into his. He couldn't deny her no matter how much he wanted to. Closing his eyes tightly he let a few of his own tears leak and nodded slightly against her cooling hands. "The words Doctor. Promise me."

"I promise Clara, my impossible girl," His own voice cracked as he took her hands off his cheeks, as she looked at him with a tear stained face. He could do this one thing for her, for his Clara. He placed her arms around his neck and wrapped his own around her waist, bringing their bodies closer to one another until they were chest to chest. "This is not a hug," He sniffed as he felt Clara giggle slightly against him.

"Of course not Doctor," She smiled up at him and placed a chaste kiss against his cheek, "Of course not." Then she turned from him and he watched her go and face the raven.

* * *

The Doctor quietly shut the door and stood there in silence, his breath still choppy and his body still shaking slightly. Watching her die like that, right in front of him while he could do nothing tore him apart. He had desperately wanted to run to her and lift her body into his arms and scream. She had meant so much to him, that losing her that way felt like someone had ripped one of his hearts out. His eyes were sore from his crying but they were stern when he turned them onto Me. She stood there with guilt riddling her face, as if that alone would fix what she had done.

"Do you know why Clara told me not to take revenge," He growled towards her, straightening his spine. Out of the corner of his eye he saw her visibly flinch and look away from him.

"She was saving you," She said softly, her gazing flicking back up to him. He scoffed slighting.

"I was lost a long time ago, she was saving you," He growled again, turning his head to look back at her and watching her stiffen and straighten her spine in bravery. "I'll do my best, but I strongly advise you to keep out of my way. You'll find that it's a very small universe when I'm angry with you." And with that he was finished talking with her, turning his back to her entirely. He heard her swallow roughly and whisper a small apology again before he was whisked away.

* * *

Clara stood inside her diner scrubbing down the counter top. So many things had happened over the past couple of months that it still was hard to wrap her mind around. The diner was quiet as she mulled over her thoughts and instinctively she placed two fingers on her pulse point on her wrist. There was no reassuring thump of her heart beat to indicate that she was alive. Really she wasn't alive, frozen between one heart beat and the next. She placed her elbows on the counter and leaned her chin against her open palms, she knew she had to go back eventually. To once again face the raven, but she wasn't ready yet. She wasn't as brave as Danny Pink and she doubted she ever would be. A harsh ring of the door chime pulled Clara from her thoughts and her eyes traveled to the tall man who walked in through the door, and she stopped short. How did he keep finding her?!

She stood straighter as he approached, his blue eyes watching her, as if expecting her to bolt. She sighed softly as she looked at him, trying desperately not to soften her expression.

"Sir, I'm starting to feel like your beginning to stalk me," She chided as he sat down on the bar stool to stare at her.

"Stalking implies that I am following you when to me, it feels like the other way around," He replied as he situated himself more comfortably in the chair. Clara smiled softly as she once again leaned against the counter. She chuckled to herself at the irony, she hadn't been following him at all. In fact no matter where she parked her own T.A.R.D.I.S. it didn't take long for her to see him strolling through her front door.

"Doctor this has to stop. I've already told you more than once that I can't tell you anything."

"But you must know something!" He insisted as he grasped at her hands that had been laying on the counter. She stiffened slightly and looked down. After he had hugged her the first time she faced the raven and then extracted her from when she hadn't, he had been more keen on touching her. Even if he didn't remember who she was, which hurt thinking about all the time. "Please you have to tell me who Clara is! It's driving me insane this knowledge that I can't get to! I know that I know her, if I could see her I could probably pick her out of a crowd."

At that she scoffed pulling her hands away from his. At this point she highly doubted that, he was staring right at her.

"I'm sorry Doctor, but if you yourself can't see it what makes you think I can?" She turned her back to him and began to walk towards the employee door, which led to her console room. Me was probably somewhere further in the T.A.R.D.I.S. reading one of her diaries, waiting for closing time for the diner so that they could travel once again.

"Because you always know my clever Clara," His Scottish accent was thick when he said this and stopped Clara in her tracks, with her hand on the door. She slowly turned around to face him, her unneeded breath sawing in and out quickly. Her eyes misted as he made his way over to her his gait slow and sure. There was no confusion in his eyes, only stern resolution. He knew who she was, but how, she did not know. Nor did she care. She closed the last remaining steps between them and wrapped her arms around his waist. His own arms circled around her and he squeezed her tightly.

"How?" Was all she got out through her chocked tears. He rocked her slightly as they embraced, as if to reassure himself that she was really there.

"I couldn't stop thinking about you Clara," He stepped back slightly from her grasp and raked his hands through his gray curls, "You were there in my head but I couldn't pinpoint your face. It drove me almost to the point of insanity," she scoffed at that, until he looked down at her sternly, "The more I thought the worse it got. So I found a way to resurface the memories, and when it all came back I felt so stupid. You were right there in front of me on several occasions and I didn't know who you were. Or how you must have felt."

She smiled softly at that, re-wrapping her arms around him, "It's okay Doctor I was able to cope."

"Ahhh but Clara I wasn't" He then surprised them both by lifting up her face and placing a quick kiss to her lip. If her heart still beat it would have been racing a mile a minute. Obviously to hide his embarrassment, he grasped her murmuring that it wasn't a hug, to which she chuckled to.

"Doctor what was that?"

"Honestly Clara if I knew I would tell you," He grasped her tighter, bringing her body flush against his in a more intimate way than usual. Her face flushed with her own embarrassment, she wasn't sure what was going on. She wasn't used to the Doctor acting this way. A creak of a door caught their attention as Me walked through the employee door. The Doctor lifted his head from Clara's shoulder and his eyes widened at seeing Me.

"You," His voice snarled as he took a threatening step towards her. Clara grasped at the Doctor's arms halting his forward motion. The Doctor planted himself in front of Clara as if to protect her from Me, which Clara might have found charming if not for all the tension in the air.

"Please Doctor it's okay. Me is my traveling companion," Clara told him hastily keeping her grip tight on the Doctors arms.

"Your companion?" He turned back to her, momentarily distracted, which gave Me the opportunity to slide back through the door. Once the Doctor knew she was out of the room his shoulders relaxed and he turned fully back towards her, "Why are you with her Clara? She is the cause of all of this." As he waved his hand in front of her. He must of been referring to her lack of being alive. She wasn't going to point out to him that it had been his idea to extract her from her timeline before she was killed.

"I'm pretty much immortal like she is. Who better than to travel with?"

"Me Clara. You could have traveled with me," His voice sounded hurt as if she had purposefully made the jab at him. Which only infuriated her, she took a step back from him and gave him a full frontal glare.

"You were the one who wanted me to forget everything. That was you Doctor." She hissed, her fists clenched at her sides. He scowled right back at her, his face twisted in the beginnings of anger.

"It was either that or lose you to death Clara. What would you have had me do? Eh?"

"I would have made you leave me to my fate like I bloody well told you the first time you stubborn old man!" Her repressed anger over the past few months surged forward in one full swoop. She launched forward again, smacking at his chest with her fists, "Do you know how much it hurt me! To be that brave for myself! To make you proud of me! All for it to be taken away and stored for later! To add to that you ended up not remembering me because of my own fool stubbornness! You have no idea how these past few months have been for me. You kept showing up, seeking a woman you couldn't remember even though she stood right before you. It hurt so much Doctor." Clara wept openly against his chest, her smacking fists coming to a halt. His warm arms wrapped around her tightly, like a brand, never wanting to let go.

"I'd go to any lengths to be with you again, I seem to always leap before I think things fully through. But you mean so much to me Clara, I couldn't lose you. I just couldn't." He rested his chin atop of her head and squeezed his eyes tightly closed. She had quieted her tears and she leaned back to look him in the eyes.

"What are you saying Doctor?"

The Doctor held Clara's face against his palms, his whole expression softening to what she could only call, maybe, love.

"You Clara Oswald. My impossible girl, my Clara. Mean the world to me in more ways than one," He stopped slightly to take a quick breath in, "Words are very difficult to say when you left your note cards in your own T.A.R.D.I.S."

Clara laughed slightly as she sniffled. She leaned further into his touch and closed her eyes. She repeated the words she said to him the day she was supposed to face the raven, "Everything you're about to say. I already know."

The Doctor smiled down at his clever girl and kissed her once more. Clara Oswin Oswald, was once again where she should be. With her Doctor, keeping him safe.


End file.
